The present invention relates to computer-based document management systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to a computer-based document management system that has the capability of importing, organizing, browsing, searching and viewing paper-based documents and electronic documents of any type or format.
In today's business environment, most businesses, from small businesses to large corporate entities, organize and maintain a tremendous amount of information, particularly information in the form of paper-based documents and electronic documents. The task of organizing and maintaining such a large number of documents, as well as document types, can, and typically is, a time consuming and costly matter.
In response, the computer industry, particularly the computer software industry, offers a number of computer application programs designed to help mitigate this problem. Some of these computer application programs work in conjunction with optical scanners to automatically import paper-based documents into the host computer. Other application programs are directed more specifically at providing electronic file management services for existing electronic documents. Some of the more advanced computer application programs attempt to integrate a number of different capabilities into a single application program. Among the capabilities that some of the more advanced programs provide are automated document importing, storage, manipulation, retrieval, indexing, archiving, exporting and document annotation. Included among these more advanced application programs are PageKeeper by Caere Inc., PaperPort by Visioneer, and PAGIS by Xerox.
Despite the many features already offered by various software products currently on the market, there is still a tremendous need to provide a more efficient product. This is especially true regarding the way in which existing application programs allow a user to browse through an electronic document collection in an attempt to identify one or more specific documents.
For example, a document collection may include dozens of related documents. However, the user may wish to identify and access but one of those documents. Given the capabilities of existing electronic document management programs, the user is often forced to open each document, one at a time, then read or browse through all or a portion of each document to determine whether a document is, in fact, the desired document. As this would also involve opening a corresponding host application program for each document, the task of identifying a particular document from amongst a large number of documents in a document collection can become extremely difficult and time consuming. Therefore, a computer-based electronic document management program that has the ability to efficiently and automatically analyze, store, browse, retrieve and display summary information for electronic documents, without requiring the user to either enter the summary information or open a document, would be extremely desirable.